1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of surveillance and specifically to the field of mobile video security. More particularly, the present invention relates to vehicle safety and accident detection.
2. Description of the Background Art
The evidentiary recording of video is used in some commercial vehicles and police cruisers. These systems cost several thousand dollars and also are very bulky to be installed in regular cars, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Also, there are certain video recording systems for teenager driving supervision and teenager driver analytics that is triggered by certain threshold of acceleration and deceleration and records several second before and after each such trigger. In today's accidents, it is not clear who is at fault, because each party blames each other as the cause of accident, and police, unless accident happened to be actually observed by the police simply fills accident reports, where each party becomes responsible for their own damages. Driving at the legal limit causes tail gating, and other road rage, and later blaming the law-abiding drivers. Also, there is exposure to personal injury claims in the case of pedestrian's jay walking, bicycles going in the wrong direction, red light runners, etc. Witnesses are very hard to find in such cases.
A vehicle video security system would provide evidentiary data and put the responsibility on the wrongful party and help with the insurance claims. However, it is not possible to spend several thousand dollars for such security for regular daily use in cars by most people.
A compact and mobile security could also be worn by security and police officers for recording events just as in a police cruiser. A miniature security device can continuously record daily work of officers and be offloaded at the end of each day and be archived. Such a mobile security module must be as small as an iPod and be able to be clipped on the chest pocket where the camera module would be externally visible. Such a device could also be considered a very compact, portable and wearable personal video recorder that could be used to record sports and other activities just as a video camcorder but without having to carry-and-shoot by holding it, but instead attaching to clothing such as clipping.
Mobile Witness from Say Security USA consists of a central recording unit that weighs several pounds, requires external cameras, and records on hard disk. It uses MPEG-4 video compression standard, and not the advanced H.264 video compression. Some other systems use H.264 but record on hard disk drive and have external cameras, and is quite bulky and at cost points for only commercial vehicles.
Farneman (US Patent Application 20060209187) teaches a mobile video surveillance system with a wireless link and waterproof housing. The camera sends still images or movies to a computer network for viewing with a standard web browser. The camera unit may be attached to a power supply and a solar panel may be incorporated into at least one exterior surface. This application has no local storage, does not include video compression, and continuously streams video data.
Cho (US Patent Application 20030156192) teaches a mobile video security system for use at the airports, shopping malls and office buildings. This mobile video security system is wireless networked to central security monitoring system. All of security personnel carry a wireless hand held personal computer to communicate with central video security. Through the wireless network, all of security personnel are capable to receive video images and also communicate with each other. This application has no local storage, does not include video compression, and continuously streams video data.
Szolyga (U.S. Pat. No. 7,319,485, Jan. 15, 2008) teaches an apparatus and method for recording data in a circular fashion. The apparatus includes an input sensor for receiving data, a central processing unit coupled to the buffer and the input sensor. The circular buffer is divided into different sections that are sampled at different rates. Once data begins to be received by the circular buffer, data is stored in the first storing portion first. Once the first storage portion reaches a predetermined threshold (e.g. full storage capacity), data is moved from the first storage portion to the second portion. Because the data, contents of the first storage portion are no longer at the predetermined threshold, incoming data can continue to be stored in the first storage portion. In the same fashion, once the second storage portion reaches a predetermined threshold, data is moved from the second storage portion to the third storage portion. Szolyga does not teach video compression, having multiple cameras multiplexed, removable storage media, video preprocessing for real-time lens correction and video performance improvement and also motion stabilization.
Mazzilli (U.S. Pat. No. 6,333,759, Dec. 2055, 2001) teaches 360 degree automobile video camera system. The system consists of camera module with multiple cameras, a multiplexer unit mounted in the truck, and a Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) mounted in trunk. Such a system requires extensive wiring, records video without compression, and due to multiplexing of multiple video channels on a standard video, it reduces the available video quality of each channel.
Existing systems capture video data at low resolution (CIF or similar at 352×240) and at low frame rates (<30 fps), which results in poor video quality for evidentiary purposes. Also, existing systems do not have multiple cameras, video compression, and video storage not incorporated into a single compact module, where advanced H.264 video compression and motion stabilization is utilized for high video quality. Furthermore, existing systems are at high cost points in the range of $1,000-$5,000, which makes it not practically possible to be used in consumer systems and wide deployment of large number of units.
Also, the video quality of existing systems is very poor, in addition to not supporting High Definition (HD), because motion stabilization and video enhancement algorithms such as Motion-Adaptive spatial and temporal filter algorithms are not used. Furthermore, most of the existing systems are not connected to the internet with fast 3G or 4G wireless networks, and also do not use adaptive streaming algorithms to match network conditions for live view of accident and other events by emergency services or for fleet management from any web enabled device.
Automatic Severe Accident Detection
The high demand of automobiles has also increased the traffic hazards and the road accidents. Currently, some of the high-end cars have automatic severe accident systems, but these are only impact based, and do not have the capability to transmit video accident information, and also do not connect to the Internet Protocol (IP) based emergency service centers.
In a head-on collision, Newton's third law dictates that the forces on the vehicles are equal but opposite in direction, for example in a truck colliding with a smaller vehicle as shown in FIG. 14. Impulse is force multiplied by time, and time of contact is the same for both, so the impulse is the same in magnitude for the two vehicles. Change in momentum is equal to impulse, so changes in momenta are equal. With equal change in momentum and smaller mass, the change in velocity is larger for the smaller truck. Since acceleration is change in velocity over change in time, the acceleration is greater for the smaller vehicle.
Increasing the time interval during which the momentum of an occupant of a car changes from some initial value to zero is also the way to reduce injuries in car accidents. Let us look at a particular accident. An 800 kg car driving at 60 miles/h or 26.8 m/s loses traction in a curve and hits the wall of a house. When it hits, it has slowed down to 40 miles/h or 17.9 m/s. It breaks through the wall and comes to rest in the living room, 2 m from the wall.
For the car's speed to decrease from 17.9 m/s to 0 over a distance of 2 m the magnitude of its average acceleration must be 80 m/s2=8.2 g with g=9.8 m/s2. This will take 0.22 s. The momentum of a driver with m=60 kg changes 60 kg*17.9 m/s=1074 Ns to zero in 0.22 s. The average force acting on the 60 kg driver over the 0.22 s time interval is F=m*a=4806 N if he wearing a seat belt and is securely strapped into his car seat. This is probably a survivable accident.
If the driver does not wear a seatbelt, he will initially keep on moving forward at 17.9 m/s. In 0.1 seconds he will have covered a distance of approximately 1.8 m. The distance the car has covered in 0.1 s is approximately 1.4 m. If he sits initially 40 cm from the steering wheel, then his body will slam into the wheel and his head will slam into the windshield after approximately 0.1 s. The car has slowed down, and the car's speed after 0.1 s is approximately 9.9 m/s, so the driver slams into the steering wheel with a relative speed of 17.9 m/s−9.9 m/s=8 m/s=18 miles/h. If after an additional 0.02 seconds he travels with the speed of the car, v=8.3 m/s, then his momentum has changed from p=60 kg*17.9 m/s to p=60 kg*8.3 m/s in 0.02 s. This requires a force of 28800 N and an acceleration of 49 g. Now the accident is probably no longer survivable. Wearing a seat belt increases the collision time for the driver and therefore reduces the force acting on him during the collision.
In an after-market device, the first challenge is detecting accident without electronic control unit interaction. Conventional in-vehicle accident detection systems rely on sensor networks throughout the car and direct interaction with the vehicle's electronic control units (ECUs). These sensors detect acceleration/deceleration, airbag deployment, and vehicular rollover [7, 8]. Metrics from these sensors aid in generating a detailed accident profile, such as locating where the vehicle was struck, number of times it was hit, severity of the collision, and airbag deployment.
The second challenge is to prevent false positives. Vehicle-based accident detection systems monitor a network of sensors to determine if an accident has occurred. Instances of high acceleration/deceleration are due to a large change in velocity over a very short period of time. These speeds are hard to attain if a vehicle is not controlled by a human driver, which simplifies accident detection since we can assume any instance of high acceleration constitutes a collision involving human drivers. Since after-market devices are portable, however, it is not as hard to attain such speeds. For instance, it is not hard to drop an after-market device from six feet in the air, but dropping a vehicle from that height would require significantly more effort. In the event of an accident, the after-market device will experience the same forces and accelerations experienced by the occupants of the vehicle. Moreover, if the after-market device remains stationary relative to the vehicle during the collision, it is possible to use the data gathered from it to recreate and model the forces it experienced, because the forces that are experienced in the cabin of a vehicle are less than the front-end of the vehicle, for example.
The accident sensors currently used in high-end vehicles are designed as so-called acceleration sensors. In the event of an accident, they detect the acceleration or deceleration that occurs upon impact. If the acceleration or deceleration exceeds a critical value, motor-vehicle safety devices, such as seat-belt tighteners or airbags, are triggered. Usually, a plurality of acceleration sensors is mounted to the motor vehicle, with each acceleration sensor detecting the acceleration or deceleration in one spatial direction for detecting a front or side impact, as well as rolling of the vehicle.
Hans et al. (USPTO Application 20040144587) filed Jan. 20, 2004, Mark Cuddihy et al. (USPTO Application 20050040937) filed Sep. 14, 2005, and Satoru Ooga (USPTO Application 20090015684) filed on Jul. 11, 2008 discuss a crash notification system for an automotive vehicle as follows: A crash notification system for an automotive vehicle is used to communicate with a communication network and ultimately to a response center. The system within vehicle includes an occupant sensor that generates an occupant sensor status signal. A crash sensor, a vehicle identification number memory, or a vertical acceleration sensor may also be used to provide information to the controller. The controller generates a communication signal that corresponds to the occupant sensor status signal and the other information so that appropriate emergency personnel may be deployed.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,119,669 by Lundsgaard, et al. and issued on Oct. 10, 2006 is for a method and apparatus for detecting vehicular collisions. It discloses a portable electronic device, like a cellular telephone is capable of detecting collisions between vehicles and notifying the proper authorities. The device includes a microprocessor and memory, in addition to an accelerometer and global positioning systems receiver. The memory includes at least one filter for screening out false positives, which are false collision detections. In one embodiment, the device determines its velocity. It then checks to see if its velocity falls within a range associated with moving vehicles. If so, the device monitors the accelerometer. When acceleration values in excess of a predetermined threshold are detected, the device pauses and again checks its velocity. If the velocity has fallen from the range associated with moving vehicles to a range associated with a vehicle that has sustained a collision, the device notifies emergency personnel that a collision has occurred.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,922,137 by Bycroft and issued on Jul. 26, 2005 is for a collision and theft alert system. It discloses a collision and theft alert system comprising several components in combination. First provided is a vehicle having a keypad and a power source. A processor is operatively coupled to the power source and to the keypad and is capable of receiving an incoming signal and sending an outgoing signal. The processor can activate an emergency distress call with GPS location. The processor also is operatively coupled to and activates at least one strobe light, which is operatively coupled to the vehicle. The strobe light has a non-deployed state and a deployed state.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,500 by Lemelson, et al. and issued on Nov. 26, 2002 is for a GPS vehicle collision avoidance warning and control system and method. It discloses a GPS satellite ranging signals received on comm1, and DGPS auxiliary range correction signals and pseudo lite carrier phase ambiguity resolution signals from a fixed known earth base station received at one of a plurality of vehicles/aircraft/automobiles are computer processed to continuously determine the one's kinematic tracking position on a pathway with centimeter accuracy.
US Patent Application 20080195261 by David Breed filed on Oct. 25, 2007 is for an arrangement for a vehicle including a sensor system arranged on the vehicle for sensing an event requiring an emergency response, a location determining device for determining the location of the vehicle, a communication device arranged on the vehicle for automatically communicating to a remote location when an event has occurred that the event has occurred and providing the remote location with the determined location of the vehicle, and a power source for providing power for the sensor system, the location determining device and the communication device. The communication device communicates to the remote location upon occurrence of the event. The location determining device may be arranged partially or entirely on the vehicle or elsewhere. The remote location may be an emergency response center which can direct aid to the vehicle's location.
US Patent Application 20080195261 by David Breed is for a method and system for deploying an occupant restraint device in a vehicle includes arranging a sensor to detect a rear impact and deploying the occupant restraint device when the sensor detects the rear impact of sufficient magnitude to require deployment of the occupant restraint device to prevent injury to the occupant. The sensor may be a crush sensor which preferably extends across a major portion of the rear of the vehicle, an inertial sensor and/or an anticipatory sensor.
US Patent Application 20050275522 by Karl Nitz et al. filed on May 28, 2004 is for a localized accident notification system includes an accident detector that detects a crash of a vehicle and an external alert system to provide an external alert by the vehicle that can be noticed by any people in the vicinity of the crash. Upon an indication of a crash from the accident detector a controller can direct the external alert. The external alert can have special notification properties. The accident detector may only operate if the vehicle ignition is on to discriminate from a theft alarm. The accident detector can include accelerometers, air bag detectors, or tilt sensors.
US Patent Application 20050030224 by Robert Koch et al. filed on Aug. 7, 2003 is for methods, systems and mobile terminals for vehicle crash detection using a positioning system. A vehicle crash is detected by detecting a crash condition of the vehicle using a Positioning System (PS) receiver (such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver) on the vehicle. A wireless emergency signal may be generated responsive to detection of the crash condition using the PS receiver.
OnStar For-My-Vehicle (FMV) provides an after-market device by General Motors (GM) for automatic collision detection and notification. This device requires the use of a call-center, which requires $200 annual fees to be paid by user. More importantly, this device uses call center communication, which then have to be relayed to an emergency service center. This causes missing and inaccurate information, and significantly delays in such a relay of information, which in 15 percent of the accident lives to be lost due to delays in getting emergency services due to the indirection and delays in relaying of the information. Furthermore, sometime based on driving style there are false triggers of emergency. In addition, only accelerometers are used without any context information, and gyroscope and free-fall and roll-over sensing is not utilized. Moreover, no video information about accident is provided, which results in call-center personnel to continuously and repetitively seek info from the vehicle driver: Did the ambulance arrived? Did the police arrive? Did the ambulance arrive? Did the police arrive?
US Patent Application 20130006469 filed on Sep. 23, 2011 by Green et al discloses a system and method for automatic traffic accident determination and notification. A vehicle status awareness system includes one or more devices which are plugged into a cigarette lighter socket for a vehicle to receive power and are thereby fixed in position relative to the vehicle. The devices include movement sensors which indicate changes in movement of the vehicle, a position sensor which indicates a position of the vehicle, a communications device to send and receive data to and from a remote device, and a control unit. The control unit is programmed to receive and store program parameters, determine a location of the vehicle, determine a movement status of the vehicle based on a plurality of status criteria further comprising accident threshold settings, and transmit one or more of the program parameters, vehicle location, and movement status to the remote device. When deceleration with more than 3Gs is detected and speed change delta is more than 3 mph speed change an accident is reported. Green also uses sound analysis using a microphone that is consistent with airbag deployment and to confirm accident readings via other device sensors before reporting an accident. A set of acceleration readings may be averaged and filtered for any of various reasons. It is also not clear how change in speed is calculated and if it includes rear-end collision cases, where a stationary vehicle is hit from behind.
US Patent Application 20130069802 on Sep. 20, 2011 by Foghel et al discloses a system for a system for detecting a car accident and alerting emergency forces to an accident, including a smart mobile device having an accelerometer, a GPS unit, a processor connected thereto. The processor receives real time readings of measurement values received from the accelerometer and the GPS unit, runs a dedicated application to detect the occurrence of a car accident according to the readings received within a period of time, and generates an alert signal when an accident is detected. The system also includes a memory connected to the accelerometer, the GPS unit and the processor, to store the measurement values and information for a predetermined period of time, and a transmitter connected to the processor and the memory to send the alert signal and the measurement values and information stored within the memory. The system also includes a base station including a receiver, and a unit for alerting emergency forces. Foghel checks first if the acceleration is greater than a threshold value, and secondly checks if there is motion after 5 seconds, or if altitude changed more than 1.5 meter in relation to altitude at trigger time. Foghel also checks if the car is in motion during the first 5 minutes or after 5 minutes. Foghel also checks if distance travelled after trigger is less than 0.7 times the breaking distance, which is V2/(254*friction_coefficient), where friction coefficient is about 0.7 in value for a regular dry road condition. However, based on the weather road conditions may vary significantly from black ice to wet and slippery road when the raining initially started. This makes Foghel's estimates inaccurate. Also, the vehicle may not be still after 5 seconds since another vehicle the first vehicles involved in an accident.
US Patent Application 20120164968 filed on Dec. 22, 2010 by Velusamy et al discloses an approach for configuring a mobile device to enable accident detection and notification functionality for use within a vehicle is described. An emergency notification platform receives position information and acceleration information associated with a mobile device. The emergency notification platform applies a rule to the position information and the acceleration information to determine an alert condition. A notification message is then generated for presentation on the mobile device based on the application of the rule, wherein the notification message specifies information relating to the alert condition. Velusamy gets ready to contact emergency services when acceleration exceeds trigger threshold, and provides the uses a time window to cancel reporting in false positive trigger cases.
US Patent Application 20140019167 filed on Jan. 16, 2014 by Cheng et al discloses a insurance risk rating system includes a driver sensor that obtains driver behavior data by monitoring at least one of the driver's head and one or more of the driver's eyes, a processing unit that compares the driver behavior data with reference data that relates the driver behavior data to loss data, and a risk rating unit that assigns a risk rating to the driver based on a result of the comparison by the processing unit.
DriveCam provides a unit for driver analytics that captures video when a trigger event such as acceleration occurs, which is otherwise not recording. The video is sent to a central office where somebody watches the video and grades the driver. There is no embedded analytics for multiple driver profiles supported. Allstate and other insurance companies sell an OBD-2 plug-in device that collects and sends only four parameters: miles driver, speed exceeding 80 mph, late night driving, and hard braking. This does not provide for accurate driver analytics, because for example, if another vehicle cuts off causing heavy braking without fault of the driver, this will count as a negative point for the driver.